[PODCAST ASSIGNMENT (directions)] Objective: Students will produce a brief (about 3:00) podcast episode featuring several prepared sound clips and a recorded narration from a brief, original script.
Materials/Equipment: Ideally, an easy-to-use multi-track music production program such as Apple’s GarageBand or Acoustica’s Mixcraft. You also need a means to record voice (internal mic, USB mic, mic with audio interface, portable recording device with ability to “dump” audio into multi-track audio program).
Procedure: 1. Introduction: Listen to one or more example “Favorite Things” podcasts.
2. Choose a musical topic that interests you. Podcast topics could be the music of a favorite artist, band, composer, or ensemble, or a favorite genre of music. Get your theme approved. Sample themes could include:
Having chosen a topic, decide upon the TITLE for your episode.
3. Research your topic and write a brief script. Since the goal is to have a podcast approx. 3:00-4:00 in length, your script will only need to be 100-300 words (300 words is about 2 minutes of non-stop narration).
Your script should be built around 3-brief (30-45 second) sound clips of the music you are sharing (see #4 below). There are many great web sites that contain tons of great information (i.e. wikipedia, etc.). Don’t get bogged down with a lengthy, comprehensive report. That is not the point of this project. Your goal is to tell a story that communicates your enthusiasm for the topic. After hearing your podcast, we should share your curiosity and excitement about your “favorite thing.” Use the following outline for your script, but feel free to vary this structure to suit your topic:
Introduction: Why should your audience be interested in this topic? For what is your subject best-known?
Background/Description: How did he/she/they/it get his/her/their/it’s start? What defines his/her/their/it’s achievement in music? Describe the premise of your topic.
Representative Work: Tell us about some good examples that tell the story of your topic. Tell us why you like the music of your subject.
Wrap-Up/Conclusion: Find an interesting and satisfying way to conclude: What was your subject’s contribution to music? What is your subject doing now?
4. Prepare your sound clips by using the same means as in the previous activity, "Getting a Signal Into GarageBand" - Import CD tracks directly into GarageBand and crop your sound clips. NOTE: You may use NO MORE than 3 sound clips and NONE may be longer than 45 seconds!!! Don't spend too much time selecting and preparing your clips or you may not have adequate time to tend to the other production chores (writing/recording voice-over, arranging clips with fade-ins and fade-outs, etc.).
5. Record voice narration.
Set up a voice narration track. Set input volume levels for system (mic) and track (program).
Rehearse the script first.
Decide the technical recording scheme. Internal or Snowball mic in class directly to program? Portable recorder in hallway, then import to program? Mic in isolation booth, to interface, to program?
Record narration in “chunks” (paragraphs or other such sections of the script). The chunks approach allows you to easily move narration regions where they belong, and helps if you make a mistake when recording the voice since you’ll only have to re-record that chunk. If you do record your voice narration in one long take, that's OK, too - you'll just slice-and-dice it into separate "regions" to move around.
6. Shuffle/rearrange narration and sound clips to built podcast episode. Use GarageBand features already learned to add appropriate fade ins/outs (i.e. automated using “break points”) to your sound clips. Good podcasts often have the music at a low level under narration, and/or music fade in gradually while being introduced.
7. If time, add intro/theme music, closing music, sound effects (applause, comic zingers, etc.) and/or other program elements. These may be found in various categories in the LOOP BROWSER (i.e. SFX, etc.).
8. Export podcast to disk (your hard drive) as an MP3, then share with the class (and me) by posting it to the wiki.
Evaluation: you'll be awarded credit for your work using this rubric.
PODCAST, My Favorite Things [HOME]
[PODCAST ASSIGNMENT (directions)]
Objective: Students will produce a brief (about 3:00) podcast episode featuring several prepared sound clips and a recorded narration from a brief, original script.
Materials/Equipment: Ideally, an easy-to-use multi-track music production program such as Apple’s GarageBand or Acoustica’s Mixcraft. You also need a means to record voice (internal mic, USB mic, mic with audio interface, portable recording device with ability to “dump” audio into multi-track audio program).
Procedure:
1. Introduction: Listen to one or more example “Favorite Things” podcasts.
2. Choose a musical topic that interests you. Podcast topics could be the music of a favorite artist, band, composer, or ensemble, or a favorite genre of music. Get your theme approved. Sample themes could include:
- It Wouldn't Be Christmas Without (a good example by former student, Megan A.)
- Guitar Heroes
- Danny Elfman, from the Radio to the Silver Screen
- Favorite Beatles Covers
- The Doobie Brothers (or any artist, band, etc. you want to share)
- A Tribute to the Newmans (a good example by former student, Julian S.)
- The Theremin
Having chosen a topic, decide upon the TITLE for your episode.3. Research your topic and write a brief script. Since the goal is to have a podcast approx. 3:00-4:00 in length, your script will only need to be 100-300 words (300 words is about 2 minutes of non-stop narration).
Your script should be built around 3-brief (30-45 second) sound clips of the music you are sharing (see #4 below). There are many great web sites that contain tons of great information (i.e. wikipedia, etc.). Don’t get bogged down with a lengthy, comprehensive report. That is not the point of this project. Your goal is to tell a story that communicates your enthusiasm for the topic. After hearing your podcast, we should share your curiosity and excitement about your “favorite thing.” Use the following outline for your script, but feel free to vary this structure to suit your topic:
4. Prepare your sound clips by using the same means as in the previous activity, "Getting a Signal Into GarageBand" - Import CD tracks directly into GarageBand and crop your sound clips. NOTE: You may use NO MORE than 3 sound clips and NONE may be longer than 45 seconds!!! Don't spend too much time selecting and preparing your clips or you may not have adequate time to tend to the other production chores (writing/recording voice-over, arranging clips with fade-ins and fade-outs, etc.).
5. Record voice narration.
6. Shuffle/rearrange narration and sound clips to built podcast episode. Use GarageBand features already learned to add appropriate fade ins/outs (i.e. automated using “break points”) to your sound clips. Good podcasts often have the music at a low level under narration, and/or music fade in gradually while being introduced.
7. If time, add intro/theme music, closing music, sound effects (applause, comic zingers, etc.) and/or other program elements. These may be found in various categories in the LOOP BROWSER (i.e. SFX, etc.).
8. Export podcast to disk (your hard drive) as an MP3, then share with the class (and me) by posting it to the wiki.
Evaluation: you'll be awarded credit for your work using this rubric.